UPI College Basketball Player of the Year


The UPI College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual basketball award given to the best men's basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award was first given following the 1954–55 season and was discontinued following the 1995–96 season. It was given by United Press International, a news agency in the United States that rivaled the Associated Press but began to decline with the advent of television news.
Five players—Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and Ralph Sampson—won the award multiple times. Of these five, only Robertson, Walton and Sampson were three-time UPI Players of the Year.
UCLA had the most all-time winners with six. Ohio State was second with four winners, while Cincinnati and Virginia were tied for third with three winners apiece. Five other schools had two winners and sixteen schools had only one UPI Player of the Year.
Eight of the winners were sophomores, seven were juniors, and the remaining 27 were seniors. No freshman was ever presented the award.

Key

Winners

SeasonPlayerSchoolPositionClass
1954–55La SalleF
1955–56San FranciscoC
1956–57ColumbiaPG
1957–58CincinnatiPG
1958–59 CincinnatiPG
1959–60 CincinnatiPG
1960–61Ohio StateF / C
1961–62 Ohio StateF / C
1962–63DukeG / F
1963–64Ohio StateF
1964–65PrincetonSF / SG
1965–66MichiganSG
1966–67UCLAC
1967–68HoustonF / C
1968–69 UCLAC
1969–70LSUG
1970–71Notre DameG
1971–72UCLAC
1972–73 UCLAC
1973–74 UCLAC
1974–75NC StateSG / SF
1975–76IndianaF
1976–77UCLAG / F
1977–78MarquettePG
1978–79Indiana StateSF
1979–80DePaulSF
1980–81VirginiaC
1981–82 VirginiaC
1982–83 VirginiaC
1983–84North CarolinaSG
1984–85St. John'sSF / SG
1985–86St. John'sPF
1986–87NavyC
1987–88BradleySG
1988–89DukePF / C
1989–90La SalleSF
1990–91LSUC
1991–92Ohio StateSG
1992–93IndianaSF
1993–94PurdueSF / PF
1994–95MarylandC
1995–96ConnecticutSG

Winners by school

Footnotes